The public continues to expand the boundaries in which to live by moving into remote areas of the country with dense vegetation such as forest or woodlands. The demand to make such remote areas inhabitable requires clearing the vegetation to allow access for heavy equipment, and to build new dwellings, roadways, and right-of-ways. Moreover, existing roadways and right-of-ways have shoulders, banks and drainage ditches which need periodic grooming.
Implements for clearing and grooming such vegetation have been developed utilizing a self-propelled vehicle, such as an excavator backhoe having a boom apparatus. The boom is pivotally attached to the excavator turret. The boom apparatus has a distal end with a cutting apparatus attached thereto for cutting and clearing vegetation. The excavator is advantageously track driven to facilitate transport of the cutting apparatus to remote locations. The pivoting turret and boom apparatus provide the cutting apparatus at selective cutting elevations relative to the ground.
To effectively clear such vegetation, an exemplary implement for clearing and grooming must be capable of providing enough power to the cutting apparatus to sever varying diameters of trees and brush. Such power produces detrimental forces to components of the cutting apparatus. These require routine maintenance, repairs and sometimes major overhauls. However, exemplary implements for clearing and grooming are not designed for repairs or overhauls in the field, and are therefore, transported to a repair shop. If the implement for clearing and grooming is working at an operation site several miles from an access road, then considerable time is wasted transporting the excavator across rough terrain. Additionally, the transport truck must also travel to the shop after the excavator arrives at the pick-up location where the transport truck is to be loaded.
In view of the foregoing, it is desirable to provide an implement for clearing and grooming configured to provide continued operation and capable of maintenance by operators in the field.